NDLEA confiscates three tonnes of hard drugs in Abia State

The Commander of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency in Abia State, Akingbade Bamidele, said the command had confiscated over 3 tonnes of illicit drugs between 2015 and 2017.

Bamidele disclosed this in Aba on Monday during a media briefing on the command’s 2017 score card.

He said the command was in possession of the psychotropic substances that were intercepted from the drug peddlers and barons across the state, adding that the drugs would soon be publicly destroyed.

Bamidele lamented that although the agency’s war against hard drugs is in progress in Abia State, the barons were not giving up on establishing new drug hot spots.

He said a new drug hot spot established inside Ahia-Ohuru market, in Aba, had become a spot for raping women, snatching of bags, phones and consumption of hard drug.

Bamidele assured that the agency was capable of containing the spread of hard drugs in the market by engaging the market leaders for a lasting solution.

He said in 2017, NDLEA visited 49 schools in the state to train youth corps members on establishing Drug-Free Clubs.

He said: “We had a total of 825 kg of illicit drugs. 324 persons were arrested within this period comprising 304 males and 20 female suspects.

“We had 53 convictions while the rest were either released or on-going cases at Umuahia Federal High Court. Through our Drug Demand Reduction, we rehabilitated 24 persons while those arrested at the joints were briefly counseled. We intensified our motorised patrols through which we intercepted and recovered two vehicles, one in Aba and one in Umuahia where cannabis was concealed.

“At our Milverton-York outpost, we were able to arrest a consignment sent from Lagos with heroin concealed inside a DVD player. We also seized 50 pieces of “Senators” designer clothes fitted with large buttons filled with heroin; the case is on trial now. We also seized a water dispenser coming from abroad which had drugs in it.”

He said that in a raid at Arochukwu, and Okon in Ohafia local government areas, 4 guns were seized from drug barons while some of them were arrested.

The commander said if the command was able to achieve that much with a single patrol van; it would do better when given more vans with security equipment.

He called on Governor Okezie Ikpeazu to assist them by fulfilling his promise to give them more vans to make their work easier.